…Albert Pujols would have no luck at all.
In a diary on Viva El Birdos, commenter Hummingbird takes a look at El Hombre’s batting average on balls in play, or BABIP, which measures a hitters average when they put the ball in play. (For a quick and dirty primer on BABIP go here) A higher-than-average BABIP suggests that a hitter is getting lucky, and vice-versa.
If I am to understand correctly, Albert’s career BABIP is .324. (The average National League BABIP last year was .295). Hummingbird’s research shows that this year, Al’s BABIP stands at .276 after Sunday’s game, suggesting he’s actually been unlucky with the lumber this season. Hard to believe, I know
But the following two sentences blew my mind:
I was wondering what his numbers would be like if his BABIP were more in line with his 2001-2005 average, so I gave him 17 more singles to raise his BABIP to .323. With those 17 extra singles – singles, mind you – added to his numbers, Albert’s line would be a frightening .360/.456/.720, which is top-30 all-time territory. Yikes.
Yikes, indeed. I shudder to think what kind of ball-crushing damage a suddenly lucky (in terms of BABIP) Albert Pujols could do.
